Since I have started on this new fitness drive, I have constantly been trying to think up ways to challenge myself, both to see if I can achieve these challenges and also as a way to gauge my progress week by week. In the beginning it was simply a case of seeing if I could beat the number of calories I had burned at the last gym visit or seeing if I could beat the distance I got on the exercise bike. This was fine but I quickly realised this wasnt an effective way of challenging myself as weekly, sometimes daily challenges were only going to be attainable for a very short amount of time. It was great to see that I could increase my distance on the bike by 1km in 3 successive gym visits but I'm no Chris Hoy so I quickly realised I needed to look at it from a different point of view. At the moment my main goal when I go into the gym is simply to match what I did in the last session, if I beat it by a little then its a great result but as long as I can match myself, I know I am still on target.
I am now into the third full week of my regime and as I came out of the gym a week or so ago I came across a leaflet advertising the Race For Grace 2010. For those unfamiliar with the Grace House hospice, which will be probably be most people outside of Sunderland, the appeal was set up in order to raise funds to build a dedicated hospice for children all over the North East of England. They are trying to help make a real change to the lives of thousands of very sick children. For the past couple of years, there has been a race around Herrington Park to try and raise as much money as possible so that the hospice can be built as soon as possible. When I saw the leaflet in the gym, it immediately drew my attention. I see this as a chance not only to challenge myself and test my progress so far, but also to take part in something which is for an extremely good cause. The entry fee is only £10 which is nothing to me and in part I actually felt slightly disappointed that you aren't asked or required to garner sponsors for the run. Never the less, I took my application form, I have filled it in and now sent it off, giving me now just over a month to prepare myself for what is going to be the longest run I have ever done in one go. My training regime is going to have to change very slightly as currently I train only on the cross trainer and exercise bike but I know I will need to do some work on the treadmill in order to make sure that I can go the distance. 3 mile may not seem like a great deal but for me this will be a big test and I may be red in the face and crawling over the finish line but I am determined that I will do it. If anyone reads and would like to take part or find out a little more about the appeal, you can find the website at http://www.gracehouse.co.uk
Aside from all of that it has been another fairly productive week since my first blog entry, I am continuing to improve session by session, I have just increased from 20 minute routines on the machines to 25 and was surprised to find I coped with it very well, its been a long time since I have been able to complete 50 continuous minutes or cardio but I am getting there. I have also taken another positive step to achieving one of my main goals set which is to fit into the next waist size down jeans. I have just recently found I could fit into the next size down from the ones I have been wearing for 2 years. In my experience, you can try on a pair of jeans in one shop and have them fit fine and then the exact same size in another shop will not fit at all. As I went into a shop last night, despite having fit into a pair or smaller jeans in another shop, I was fairly confident based on past experience that they would not fit here. Thus I decided to make the claim 'the day I fit into a pair of Ben Sherman jeans comfortably, I will buy them'. I revelled in my claim as I knew it would be long before this would be a reality, until I decided to try a pair on anyway just to see how far away I was. To my delight/horror, I found that they fit absolutely fine, delight dawned as I realised they actually fit, horror dawned as I realised the £60 price tag. I swiftly backed out of my original claim, knowing that I certainly do not have 60 sheets to throw away on jeans. Regardless, this was another positive boost and acknowledgement of the effort I have put in so far, giving me only more motivation to continue.
I will post again soon to update on my planning and progress towards the Race For Grace, cue the Chariots Of Fire theme playing in my head. And hopefully come October 3rd, I will still have enough energy left to let you know how I did.
Graeme
